‘I’M AFRAID’ 

Witness who claims Christian Brueckner confessed to snatching Madeleine McCann plans to flee Germany amid revenge fears

Helge’s testimony helped convict Brueckner over a 2005 rape in Praia da Luz

THE witness who claims Christian Brueckner all but confessed to snatching Madeleine McCann plans to flee Germany — fearing a furious revenge attack.

Helge Busching, 54, sparked the German investigation in 2017 and says Brueckner told him that the toddler “didn’t scream”.

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Christian Brueckner all but confessed to snatching Madeleine McCann, claims Helge BuschingCredit: Paul Edwards

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Madeleine vanished on holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007Credit: AFP
He added: “I’m afraid. Christian knows I’m the only one who can pin the Madeleine McCann case on him. He will want me out of the way. Brueckner knows what he told me.”

The former petty criminal recalled: “We were at a festival in Spain in 2008 a year after Madeleine vanished. I didn’t want to speak to him but he asked, ‘Why aren’t you in Portugal any more?’.

“I said it wasn’t somewhere I wanted to be — that there were too many police since Madeleine McCann. Then I said, ‘How did someone take her from the apartment?’.

“Christian looked at me and said, ‘She didn’t scream’. We both knew exactly what he had said.

“I had already seen what he was capable of and I knew he was telling me he had taken her.

“Then I discovered Christian left the festival in the night.

“It was clear he left in a rush because he almost ran over someone’s tent with his camper van.

“To me, he realised what he had said to me and he panicked and decided to run away.”

Helge’s past made him reluctant to go to cops. But he said he called Scotland Yard weeks later after seeing Brueckner again.

Helge called police again in 2017 amid coverage in Germany of the ten-year anniversary of the ­disappearance.

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He said: “It is one of the biggest regrets of my life that I did not contact the police again sooner.

“But when I saw the anniversary I thought, ‘I can’t let him be a free man. This cannot go on for the parents’.

“I believe he took Madeleine McCann — I believe he killed her.”

Recycling plant worker Helge went on: “He will offend again.

“I know him. I know this man. I hate this man. It is a matter of time before he abuses another child or attacks another old woman.”

Helge, whose testimony helped convict Brueckner over a 2005 rape in Praia da Luz, added: “I’m ­worried he wants revenge. He knows I put him behind bars and I reported him for ­Madeleine.”

Helge has lost faith in Germany’s legal system and reckons he will be safer leaving the country — even if it means quitting witness protection.

He went on: “I am hiding. I will never stop moving — never stay in the same place for too long in case it helps him track me down.”

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Helge Busching sparked the German investigation in 2017 and says Brueckner told him that the toddler ‘didn’t scream’Credit: x/ITV